Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Carl Jung overlooked a common archetype. How? This particular archetype appears before parties on the home front. I get the call. At least a week ahead of their long planned, months, gathering. "Tara, you've got to get the garden ready."
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What to do? Not what you think. With a party and little time, two necessities. Fresh mulch, and clean lines.
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Clean Lines. Huge Garden Design tool, party or no.
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Brick edging, below, clean lines. Garden, below, could easily go more formal with the edging. Do you know how? Soldiers. What are soldiers in the garden? Bricks as garden edging are called 'soldiers'. Further, the higher the soldiers, the more formal the garden.
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Before the soldiers, below. Shot the pics merely thinking job process, instead, another affirmation of clean lines.
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A lot of Garden Design here, beyond Clean Lines. Focal points on axis, in enfilade. So. Everyone is a garden designer, label the focal points on axis in enfilade. No? It's one of the most common Garden Design tricks, used ad infinitum, on Garden book/magazine covers.
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Another Garden Design rule followed, above, flow. Moving thru the space easily.
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Another Garden Design rule followed, above, Color Trinity. Green-Brown-White is the historic favorite, and chosen, above. Did your eyes/brain lock on that when you first saw the top pic? Granite gravel, #89, and the livestock tank are the white prong of the Green-Brown-White here. Table and trees, obviously, the brown.
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Another Garden Design rule followed, above, Color on Field Gathered Furniture all Painted the Same Color.
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Another Garden Design rule followed, Overdose Your Theme. Small iron conservatory at middle of table, above, painted same green as chairs.
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Another Garden Design rule followed, Every Garden Needs a Water Feature. More, I wanted the sound. My chickens arrived, aged 6 days cracked, in this livestock trough with a heat lamp, now, it's another gift.
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Grading ahead of gravel, below.

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Another table, below, glass topped metal, Overdosing on a Theme, painted same color as chairs. Metal table used as buffet table, leveraging party time, with harvest table.
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Near the harvest table, below, Overdosing on a Theme, green furniture, galvanized pots/light fixtures, granite, terra cotta pots matching the red clay bricks used as edging, both burnt Earth. Overdosing on a Theme isn't for spots of your Garden, it's for the entire garden.
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A reminder, below, to use clean lines.
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(Never answered my own question, above, about the focal points in enfilade. What are they? Did you label them?)
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Day ahead of our first gathering in our new Garden Room, above, Beloved/I were sitting at the table, above, tired, dirty, happy. I was about to get happier, as a Cheshire Cat.
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Beloved says to me, eyes big, eyebrows raised, "We don't have enough chairs." A best moment. I've been dragging garden chairs home to this garden since we moved in 3 years ago. Had a lot from my other garden, but I knew where this garden was headed. Why was this a best moment? Every chair I brought home, he complained about me junking up the garden, we have enough chairs, don't buy anymore chairs, you're wasting your money.
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Nope, didn't do the told-you-so, merely the Cheshire Cat smile. His chair panic escalated, Let's move some chairs from the deck to here. Nope, need those chairs for using the deck too.
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Our gathering arrived, some were spending the nite. Guess what happened late in the evening? Gathering for music, talking, laughter, stories, moved to the deck. Strands of lites, above, were plenty of illumination for the deck too.
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This gathering quite special, Beloved's friends from before kindergarten, literally. Know many of their stories, and have requested I never know all their stories, "Don't worry Baby you won't."
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Garden & Be Well, XO T
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Tire swing, above, hanging when we moved in. Knew I was going to cut it down. Then my precious girls came with their dear mom, we had lunch and the girls ran/played, and were tire swinging in crazy ways never imagined. They've been more, but those were lunches on the front porch, time to get them back for lunch and tire swinging again, and dining nearby.
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Adore our new Garden Room, though living thru its cliche epoch. Cliche epoch? Trees & evergreen groundcover need to grow-grow-grow, own the space, diminish our input. You know, the proper order of things. Nature in charge, with merely a hint of us.
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Did you label the focal points in enfilade, from question, above? Table to livestock trough. At some point, not too distant, stone steps will lead from livestock trough into garden, extending the enfilade further. Looking forward to making adjustments to scale/flow with that new layer.
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Hoop greenhouses going in at back of property for growing wholesale plants. More wholesale plants will be outside under irrigation, coming close to the gravel terrace, above. No worries, we'll plant a hedge, 5'-6', hiding the nursery, yet keeping trees, sky, and distant garden views in site. Probably tea olive, deer proof, fast grower, dense.
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Where are you on the Garden Design continuum?
Garden Design Rules, followed, above:
Use a Color Trinity
Green-Brown-White is historic classic Color Trinity
Flow
Overdose a Theme
Paint Field Gathered Furniture Same Color
Garden Party Top 2 Garden Preparations: Fresh Mulch, Clean Lines
Enfilade
Soldiers
Formal Soldiers
Informal Soldiers
Leverage Harvest Table with a Buffet Table
Focal Points on Axis
Every Garden Needs a Water Feature
Siting a Hedge: Constraints
Choosing Hedge Plants: Considerations
Keep Calm & Live Thru the Cliche Epoch

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

One of the things we bought with our ca. 1900 home? The Milky Way.
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Sunsets, waxing/waning moons, storm clouds, puffy white clouds dotted & dashing across blue skies.
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At our backdoor a stoop is now a deck stretching full, left to right. Grand conversations of roofing a portion and screening it in. All was easy, at the front end. Then came enjoying the deck, and Milky Way.
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Yet, we'd truly like a portion saved from rains. And sun. How our home came to be 117 years old without a shade tree at back. Really?

Pic, above, here.
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Enjoying playing with my friend, Vision Questing. Found the iron vine supports, top, this morning. Knowing the iron monger on our team could do them exactly. Better, the arches easily removed from the posts. Rendering them temporary if desired, and other choices made later. Yet perfect if that's as far as we go.
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This phase of gardening, anticipation, I adore.
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Saves money/time down the road. More, I don't want to pull the trigger too fast, only to think, "Wish we had....."
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Deck still needs staining, to protect from all the sun, furniture is bare bones. Eating dinner on the deck feels a bit like camping. Especially when we linger, and the Milky Way appears.
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Garden & Be Well, XOT
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Would obviously need a deciduous vine. Wisteria 'Amethyst Falls' a leading contender. Shady in summer, warm in winter.